President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried on Friday to put the best face on evident tensions created by Obama’s remarks a day earlier, when the president outlined his vision for an eventual peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Obviously, there are some differences between us in the precise forumlations and language, and that’s going to happen between friends,” Obama said after a 96-minute-long, one-on-one meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office. “But what we are in complete accord about is a true peace can only occur if the ultimate resolution allows Israel to defend itself against threats.”

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Obama meets with Netanyahu

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When cameras and reporters were escorted in after the meeting, Netanyahu was polite to his U.S. host but also bluntly pushed back against Obama’s Thursday speech. In that address, Obama said Israel’s pre-1967 borders should be the basis for negotiating a settlement to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We can’t go back to those indefensible lines,” Netanyahu said, noting that the borders before the Six Day War left Israel just nine miles wide at its narrowest point. That distance, the Israeli prime minister noted, is “half the width of the Washington Beltway.

Each leader paid close attention but evinced little reaction as his counterpart spoke.

Netanyahu seemed to choose his words carefully as he called Obama’s speech “important” but stopped short of characterizing it as welcome or helpful. “I think we may have differences here and there, but I think there’s an overall direction that we wish to work together to pursue a real genuine peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbor,” he said.

In a message clearly aimed at the U.S. audience, Netanyahu also referred to Hamas as “the Palestinian version of Al Qaeda.” Just last month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas cut a power-sharing deal with Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, has committed repeated acts of terrorism and is dedicated to wiping out Israel. In addition, Abbas is pressing forward with a plan to ask the United Nations to formally recognize a Palestinian state in September.

Netanyahu complained about Obama’s proposal that Israel eventually withdraw all troops from the territory of a new Palestinian state. “We have to have a long-term military presence along the Jordan” River, he said.

He also suggested that Obama should have been more direct with the Palestinians about a concession many experts say they will need to make to achieve peace: give up the claimed right of Palestinian families to return to their former homes in territory Israel would control in a peace deal.

“Everybody knows that not going to happen, and I think it’s time to tell the Palestinians forthrightly it’s not going to happen,” the Israeli prime minister said as he sat next to Obama.

Friday’s meeting bore similarities to a chilly interaction between Obama and Netanyahu that took place in March 2010. At that time, tensions over Israel’s refusal to suspend settlement activities led to a White House encounter the Israelis reportedly viewed as a snub and an insult to the Israeli prime minister and his delegation.

During the public portion of the meeting Friday, Obama did not repeat his comments about the 1967 borders. However, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that Obama stood by the position he articulated Thursday and that he discussed the issue privately with Netanyahu.

Carney added that Obama’s reference to the 1967 lines was consistent with what diplomats have discussed for years as the basic framework for a peace accord.

Readers' Comments (807)

Romney is right Obama and the Democrats have throw our strongest ally under the bus......

This move is very strange and is going to be very controversial moving forward. I don't think it will affect campaign dollars coming in from West LA because for some reason alot of American Jews don't seem to be close to Israel, but that's just my Perceptions.........

I think this move, asking Israel to pull back to the pre-1967 war borders isn't going to go over well.

Any Jew in this country who votes, or even timidly supports, Obama should be ashamed of themselves. By abandoning Israel this way Obama has just validated every rocket attack, every suicide bomber, every Muslim violence against Israel. After all, even the Americans think Israel is unlawfully occupying Palestinian land, right?

And we'll give the leaders of the violence a $4 Billion dollar signing bonus, fresh from China. The worst president ever. Period.

our strongest Ally, are they in Afghanistan helping us? where are they except when it comes down holding out their hand wanting more Billions for their people for free healthcare , for free education from the craddle to the grave.....the GOP is throwing us under the Bus. We have to struggle in the middle east until we are broke because they don't want to make peace.....the GOP will be under the bus come election......!@#$R% them

About time Obama tells Israel and Palestine no peace no money from us anymore, find your money you use to fight each other somewhere else ........

Romney is right Obama and the Democrats have throw our strongest ally under the bus......

My @##.........our strongest ally, our strongest ally throws us under the bus evey day....by holding out their hand and acting like a spoiled child with tantrums as soon as we expect them to go to the peace table. Who the heck do they think they are. They and their friends in Washington ruined this country.....we struggle and fight these Arabs every day...and go broke, while they are sipping in luxury their expresso and telling the Arabs to go to @#$$......who do they think they are? where do they help us, expect crying and whining for a century how they are getting mistreated. They are a small country, and I understand we should protect them, but not for them to create mischief and chaos by not giving back the land doesn't belong to them.....we give our men lifes evey day so they can live in luxury we give them Billions so they can have free education and health care.....their president lies since years in comatose and they won't pull the plug....and we pay for this...while our people supposed to get their health care cut and rationed from the GOP so they can go on fighting the Arabs......@#$% the GOP and Ryan... I have enough of their whining and crying and !!@@@### the folks out there

you're a little naive.........................can you even imagine a Jewish Army reporting for duty in Afghanistan................. boy would hell break out all over the Middle East...............

Come on dora rice....................think about that for a minute second............

and ? let's get it out in the open. Hell is breaking out all over the middle east anyhow, why not for us to control it.....if they can't report for duty then they must be wrong . Otherwise report for duty and get this over with once and for all.....

this is how we keep thinking ..or just lets fight a little bit....and spend Billions here and there and never solve anything.....Israel is like an infected pimple on your body that spreads the infection all over the body....either solve this problem...wipe it out .....but we can't kill our soldiers and break our bank peacemeal anymore....we are broke...

Does anyone get as sick as I do seeing American politicians kowtow to any and every Israeli demand, however warmongering, unfair and expensive it might be to peace? I'm glad President Obama has been firm with Netanyahu. Without such firmness, real peace in that region will never happen.

Israel is not our greatest ally they are the greatest thorn in our side. It is time to stop sending them money. It is time to stop the settlements. It is time to stop being held hostage to the holocaust. It's time for Netanyahu to go.

These comments are absurd. First, all Obama stated was a reiteration of US policy for decades, last stated by none other than George Bush. It has ALWAYS been a return to the 67 lines, with land swaps. It is crazy to say our policy has ever been anything else.

Second, if anything, Obama has kow-towed once again to the right wing Likudist government in Israel. If he really wanted to push Israel to make peace, he would have done as Bush 41 did and cut off their loan guarantees unless they stopped stealing their neighbors' land.

Third, Americans need to realize that the present government of Israel, by consistently refusing to stop settlement activity, by finding every excuse to avoid a peace agreement (the latest being that Hamas is part of the Palestinain government...before the excuse was the Palestinians could not claim to represent Gaza..now they do, so Israel needed a new excuse)...is absolutely headed for disaster. Israel wants a one state solution, as outlined in the NYT op-ed by Likudist Denon this week. A state which denies any rights of citizenship to Arabs...so, basically, apartheid.

That is indefensible...so it leads to an Arab majority...which leads to the end of Israel as a jewish state.

It is time our leaders started telling the American people the truth on this issue. The longer we wait, the worse it will be for Israel.

Obama is a radical associate of Rashid Khalidi and Bill Ayers, he is a disciple of the racist Jew and America hater Rev Wright, he has on his staff a woman named Stephanie Powers who supports using the US military to fight and kill the Jews in Israel. We all know he is a liar...FYI at the AIPAC meeting in June 2008 he stated he supports an undivided Jersusalem as the capital of Israel.

Obama is a cheap Chicago pol with very limited intellectual abilities (he was unable to write a law review article, he thinks the US has 57 states, he cannot properly pronounce the word corpseman, and he thinks the language used in Austrian is Austrian).

He has deliberately personally insulted the PM of Israel and all real Jews (the hollywood liberal jews would not know halacha from a piece of bacon, which they all eat as a sign they are not really Jews).

What intelligent Americans will do now is work tirelessly to defeat little barry soetero and send him back to Chicago in Jan 2013 where he can forever live in shame...may he live a very long life and may he agonize over being, what will be more clear to everyone as time goes by, a man of low character and a shameful person who deliberately killed any chance of peace in Israel

If I remember World History it was the Arab nations that attacked Israel and lost the 7 day war and in war land is lost and gained. They attacked again in I believe it was 1972 and lost again.

Mr Obama is creating huge problems for America, World History has shown kingdoms that go against Israel pay the price. I have to assume Mr Obama is one of the Christian's that believe the Jewish people killed Jesus, this is not true. Jesus said no man takes my life for I give it freely. I wonder how Many American Jewish people voted for Obama, bet they didn't see this coming. Playing god against God is not a smart move. Seeing that Mr Obama has thrown America under the bus, it's no wonder why he is throwing Israel under the bus too!. Is Mr Obama the tool God will use to bring war against Israel to bring down Gog? ( for more read Ezekiel 38: 1-23 )

Maybe because Mr Obama doesn't believe in border control in America, he feels Israel shouldn't have border control either.

Or maybe it's about a quote from Senator Obama ( " It's my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we as a Nation of warring people, should conduct ourselves as the nations of Islam, whereas peace prevails. Perhaps a state or period of mutual concord between our governments. When I become President, I will seek a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts. We as a Nation have placed upon the nations of Islam an unfair injustice." )

Not a good move on Mr Obama's part. But then that seems the norm with Mr. Obama.